Corner graffiti

A touch of color on the corner of a building.

Standing order

 

 

Oysters and wine at 10 a.m.

 

Maison des Épicureans

46 rue Lamarck 75018

 

Only two or three tables.

 Standing only.

Get there early.

 

Shorter nights

 

 

And longer days. Today marks mid-winter.

Shut tight

 The small Montmartre Museum, like all museums in Paris, remains closed.

Musée de Montmartre

12 rue Cortot 75018

Beyond the street

 At the end of a street sweeping views over the city.

Day of the crêpe

Just when you thought the holidays were finally over today is the much-anticipated fête of La Chandeleur in France a.k.a. Candlemas in Anglo-Saxon countries.

The root of fête is "feast," and every holiday (Holy Day) is associated with good food and feasting. On this day, le jour des crêpes packages of ready-made crêpes and boxes of "crêpe mix" have been filling Paris supermarket shelves for days. 

La Chandeleur was a way to use the last of the milled flour from the year before and, some say, the very shape of a crêpe represented the sun, as winter days began to grow lighter. Just two weeks before Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - it heralded soon-to-begin Lent, when eating habits were curtailed for four weeks before Easter... and then the feasting cycle began all over again. - BPJ

Above: cidre accompanies savory sarrasin (buckwheat) flour crêpes that precede the more familiar white flour (froment) dessert crêpes. Their "crêpe-ness" - crispness - lies in their lacy crunch, and the Breizh Café gets it right

Mona Monday

Mona Lisa looks out from a gallery window with the reflection of a cobbled square behind.